there were many losses that piled up and up and up. there were times when lee cheong-san did not know what propelled him forward anymore. he'd lost his mother. he'd lost friends and acquaintances and teachers. but at one point, his motivation became evident: he had to live for nam on-jo. he'd loved her for a long time, even if he hadn't realized it for a while. she sustained him back home, and she could sustain him here. what happened to him was even unclear to cheong-san: could he survive the fall, let alone the bite from gwi-nam? he had no idea, but he was breathing here, so he must be alive in some fashion. "are you all right?" cheong-san inquired when he noticed someone who was sniffling on the bench. "i was in the middle of a walk, but would you like to join me? maybe get your mind off of things?" he offered then.
"there are some things that when you see them, you can’t ever unsee them." ( gi-hun & anyone )
gi-hun felt his heart pound in his chest. hard and horrible and reliable all at once. "yes, there are." there were so many things that he could not unsee. he'd never forget sang-woo piercing his neck with his own blade. he'd never forget deok-su and min-yeo plunging to their deaths. he'd never forget the rope burns that he'd sustained... pulling other people to their deaths. he'd never forget calling ga-yeong, unable to tell her the truth, to be in her life whatsoever. "what are some things that you can't ever unsee? if i can ask as much, hmm?"
.users { LUNA }
.location { primia ( floor 61 ),
boss battle }
TRIGGER WARNINGS: blood, injury, eye gore (towards a dino), heights, falls, (mention of) death
This fight was going nowhere. The goddamn motherfucking tyrannosaurs rex that the game developers thought would be a great bit of fun wasn't anywhere close to being defeated and Luna was already exhausted. She was running low on daggers, most of her throwing knives stuck in the side of the large dinosaur, nothing more than a thorn in its side. The archers were starting to get to higher ground to fire from above, but so far it wasn't doing much. People down below were getting crushed underneath the beast's feet, and those that weren't fighting the T. Rex were fighting off other dinosaurs. This wasn't working. They needed to take a new approach.
Luna looked around, trying to think of a new plan of attack when she spotted Padme using her plants to fend off oncoming attacks from the smaller dinosaurs. "Padme, give me a boost," Luna ordered, grabbing hold of one of the vines closer to the main boss. With a look of fierce determination, Padme focused most of her power on growing the vine, thicker and taller. "I need to get to the head," Luna called down, the plant shooting her higher and higher into the air. When Padme’s features merged into one blob of color, Luna stopped looking down.
The eyes were always weak points. It wouldn't kill the boss outright, but it could give them some time to catch up, get some more meaningful damage. Luna tightened her hold on the vine, her knuckles going white as it continued to grow upwards. She'd never been afraid of heights before, but she'd also never clung precariously to a vine hundreds of feet into the air before either. But this was her duty. Her goal was to get as many of her people to the finish line as possible, and keeping them from dying in this battle would get them closer to that goal. It was easier to pretend that her palms weren't sweating when she thought of getting everyone home.
When the vine stopped growing, she was just below eye-height of the boss, still distracted by the people attacking from below. With her heart beating so loud she swore she could hear it in her ears, Luna pulled out one of her daggers that Radish had put a True Course enchantment on. Her aim was usually good, but this guaranteed a perfect shot. All she had to do was line up her throw, lock onto the target, and let the dagger do the rest. So she held her breath and did just that, watched it sail through the air towards the dinosaur's eye, and wincing when it sank in.
Luna was good at thinking on her feet, at creating last minute plans to reach a goal, finding ways to defeat an enemy when the first plan fell through. What she wasn't so great at was escape plans. She could usually get out of a mission fairly easy, but a battle? Not so much. She'd planned for the terrifying slow ascend upward, planned for her knife to slice through the beast's eye, but she didn't plan much farther than that. And when her exit was decided for her, it came as only half of a surprise.
One second, she stood clutching the vine with one arm, the other extended from throwing her dagger, and the next she falling. She hadn't planned for the T. Rex to lash out with its tail, nor had she planned for it to take out not only the large vine, but Padme as well. She hadn't planned for the vine crumpling without Padme's magic to guide it, or for Luna herself to start hurtling towards the ground, her velocity getting faster and faster every second.
She thought it odd that her first instinct wasn't to protect her head, to scream, to call out for help. Instead, she let her arms and legs spread, and for a bit, it almost felt like she was flying. The wind was harsh against her face and exposed arms, it whipped her hair behind her and instead of screaming she almost wanted to laugh. Of all the ways for it to end, she never thought it would have been like this. A fall. Or flight.
Luna didn't see her life flash before her eyes, she just saw the ground, getting closer and closer, so she turned around and faced the sky instead, let the air cradle her. She was watching a cloud go by when she felt the earth catch her, solid and unforgiving. Her arm was bent behind her back, and her chest felt like it exploded, but it didn't hurt. Nothing hurt, not even when a cough ripped it's way out and brought blood with it. The sun was setting, and Luna couldn’t help but notice that it was beautiful.
[ THROWN ] : my muse watches as your muse gets thrown from their horse ( anakin & asajj lmao )
Jane Austin Meme
Ventress brushed the sand from her face staring at the horse that had just thrown her as he trotted back to her and nudged her shoulder. “What did I tell you about manners?” She poked the horse’s nose teasingly. She was always nicer to animals than she ever would be to people. When she glanced over and saw Anakin she jumped to her feet, clearing her throat. “I meant to do that. Wanted to see if he’d come back to me.” Trying to play it off in front of Anakin. Weakness and he would bite. So she wouldn’t show any, even after being thrown.
